Lalu bats for Rahul Gandhi as PM candidate

RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday batted for Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi to be the prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections, and said Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's "dream of becoming PM will never come true".

"Modi's prime ministerial dream is not going to come true... His dream of coming to Hastinapur will never materialise," he said, retorting, "What is wrong with Rahul Gandhi, tell me?"

Prasad was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a FICCI Ladies Organisation programme in Kolkata.

A dozen people were being projected as Prime Minister, but it did not mean that they would become one, he said.

He also ruled out formation of a third front during the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and said, "I have been in politics for a long time now and I can tell you a third party has never come to power, nor will it ever come to power."

"There will be only two compartments, communal compartment and secular compartment, and the secular compartment will form the government," he said.

Prasad praised Congress president Sonia Gandhi's leadership and her move for making Manmohan Singh the Prime Minister in 2004.

"She is not a foreigner. She is the daughter-in-law of India. She has proved her large heartedness by refusing the post of prime minister in 2004," he said.